Brooks B. Yeager, Executive Vice President for Policy, Clean Air-Cool Planet

Interview with BROOKS YEAGER, Executive Vice President for Policy, Clean Air-Cool Planet

Clean Air-Cool Planet: What are the major impacts that climate change is having on the Arctic?

Brooks: There are two kinds of impacts from climate change: direct and indirect. Direct impacts include loss of sea ice, release of water from Greenland, more water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from Russian rivers causing thermal changes in the region, etc. There are also many indirect impacts, some of which are starting already and some that are just on the horizon. Many of these are commercial and economic activities that are now taking place due to major Arctic sea ice melt. For example, we are now seeing industrial fishing in places that have always been protected by ice. Icelandic and Norwegian fishing vessels are venturing north of the Svalbard Archipelago for the first time. We’ll likely see an increase in shipping of all kinds, including trans-continental voyages. There are already increases in oil exploration and shipping in the Barents, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. There’s been an increase in tourist boats, particularly around Greenland. There have been innumerable impacts on traditional cultures, particularly the Inuit, but also on reindeer herders in Europe. They no longer have access to the ice-covered sea that is imperative to their way of life due to the recession of summer sea ice.

Clean Air-Cool Planet: What sort of governance structures are in place to help deal with these changes?

Brooks: Almost all the real governance done in the Arctic is done on a national level. It’s a veritable policy “smorgasbord” and not particularly well-coordinated. There are some encouraging examples of very progressive action, including Norway’s major ecosystem assessment plan for the Barents Sea. In the US, all our planning has been done by the Mineral Management Service, not by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) because that’s where the resources to do the studies are – in mining and extractive industries. There is a degree of coordination done by the Arctic Council, an innovative body that is mostly a forum for conversation, and is not a regulatory body. It’s innovative because in addition to the eight Arctic countries, there are permanent representatives from indigenous nations, a successful and creative incorporation of civil society. It’s been a very successful regional cooperation, producing studies like AMAP and the Arctic Human Development Report, but unfortunately in the end it has no authority to make decisions.

CA-CP: Are you optimistic about policymakers' ability to successfully solve the crisis facing the Arctic?

Brooks: I’m optimistic in the following sense: up until 4 or 5 years ago, no government thought the Arctic was a policy priority at all, except maybe Norway. All the press attention that Arctic warming has attracted in the past few years has made it a much higher priority, and there’s real evidence that the Arctic nations are interested in working together on this stuff.

At the meeting in Tromso, there was actually a lot of talk about the need to manage the Arctic in a way that keeps life in the Arctic sustainable while times are changing. Those discussions in tandem with the implications of these issues in the Copenhagen process are creating an emerging sense of importance for the Arctic, as well as a sense of peril.

CA-CP: What policy would you implement if you had complete control? What are you striving toward?

Brooks: I would create a much more coordinated and consistent approach to managing the resources of the Arctic, utilizing the Arctic Council, but also the new tools of ecosystem management and integrated spatial planning.

CA-CP: In what ways could an average citizen get involved?

Brooks: There are several things one can do to help fight Arctic warming:

• Recognize that for Americans, the Arctic really is our backyard, and that it’s a unique ecosystem with spectacular wildlife and other values to humanity and accordingly call for its protection in the strongest possible terms.
• Pay attention to the traditional uses of the Arctic and do what you can to preserve that even in the face of a warming world and changing climate.
• Most importantly, work as hard and as fast as possible to limit your own greenhouse gas emissions.